


The Reckoning

by Khemi



Series: The Corruption of Jake English [3]
Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: As happy as this AU can be, Blood Drinking, Blood and Gore, Caliginous Romance | Kismesis, Demons, Demonstuck, Drinking, Emotional Sex, Emotions, Eventual Happy Ending, Explicit Sexual Content, Falling In Love, Ghosts, Graphic Description, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mind Control, Murder, Possession, Rough Sex, Sadstuck, Sexual Violence, Shapeshifting, Threesome - M/M/M, Transformation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-22
Updated: 2016-04-22
Packaged: 2018-06-03 18:40:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6621892
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Khemi/pseuds/Khemi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jake English is a Demon with nothing left to lose, and now he doesn't have a conscience to hold him back from the scores he wants to settle. Dirk has promised to keep the Pact that started him on his path to hell, and with old loyalties no longer in play, it's only a matter of time before Jake gets the vengeance he wants.</p>
<p>He made a Pact to save a life, but God willing, now he'll end one. Why bother bathing in denial when he can seize reality and tear out its ugly throat?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Reckoning

**Author's Note:**

> A century later it is the third and final part to the Corruption series, and this one gets Pretty Messed Up. **Do not ignore the tags and warnings.** The first chapter is a little shorter and tamer, but the rest will be longer, and updating on Wednesday for the next two weeks.
> 
> In memory of Chofi, who isn't dead, I just like remembering her.

It’s clear Dirk is more surprised than you are when you impulsively grab him by the collar before he can leave the room, shoving him bodily against the ruins of the wall and crushing your lips to his. His grip on you is alarmed, first, claws digging into your arms- then he throws his arms around you, drags a leg around your waist, and groans into your mouth with satisfaction when your sharpened teeth catch his lip and leave dark blood slicking the glide of your mouths together.

If you’re to choose your path, your first choice is _this_ , and _him_ , and all the things you told yourself you never wanted. His hand drags in your hair and you press firmer against him, willing to take everything he’d give and maybe- maybe to demand from him in turn, a desire that rises unbidden and fills you with memories of dreams you once told yourself you despised.

The surreal reality of your current situation strikes you, and you draw back, smiling wildly at him with eyes you suspect burn as vivid as his own. Dirk looks back with awe that he can’t hide, then cups your cheeks in his hands, his smile stretching broad and blood-slicked and thrilled in a way that trembles through him and leaves his breaths shivering as they escape.

“I always knew you’d be amazing,” he croons. “Couldn’t wait to see what you’d become, and look at you, English.” If you could look, you _would,_ remembering that glimpse in the mirror and how it set you alight, remembering how the fear you’d expected turned to nothing but adoration when you finally saw what Dirk had made you. “Everything I dreamed, and mine, all _mine._ ”

“All yours.” There’s no point pretending anything to the contrary. His essence beats with your blood and when his wilted heart swells with mocking parodies of emotion, you feel them blossom in the shadows at the back of your mind. And yet… a question remains, in the echoes of being treated like some bitch he dragged in from the street, a need to know you are right about where he’s always seen you. “...You’re mine?”

Dirk watches you, lazily blinking his wide-eyed wonder away to a heavy-lidded gaze, but his smile doesn’t fall and his claws rake possessive down your back as he licks his own blood away.

“That’s dangerous territory you’re walking into, Jake. Those sorta questions- They’re the ones that get people in deep shit.”

“Maybe I’m done staying out of trouble.”

He smiles more lazily, dragging his tongue over his fangs. “Well it’s about damn time. You always fucking sucked at that anyway.”

“So many words, and none of them an answer.”

Dirk’s smile drops, and then he slips out from your arms, ducking them and adjusting his shirt back to a semblance of neatness. The evasion isn’t even subtle, a physical rebuttal to the confirmation you desired, and you draw your hands back slowly and flex your fingers to settle the brief unpleasant thoughts that fill the void in his wake. So that’s how it’ll be, is it? Fine. You already have most of an answer anyway.

“We should get down there before Dave gets tired of waiting. He’s already got what he wants.” Dirk shoots a sidelong glance at you, lifting his hand and spreading his fingers as for a moment they stretch into jagged black claws. “He’s got no reason to keep them alive that isn’t trying to get another one up on you, so when he decides he’s not patient enough for that…”

Of course. There’s work to be done, promises to keep, one last hurrah before you let go and fall into the waiting amber abyss.

“Lead the way.” You sweep your arm out in an inviting bow, and Dirk’s smile is back, lighting his cold face before he turns it away from you and does as you command.

\---

You imagine you’re quite a sight when you stride out of the door into the crisp night air beyond, taking a deep breath of a world that isn’t flavoured by damnation and feeling like that’s an absence you could fill if you were given the chance. Dirk’s blood is still on your lips and it turns cold to remind you, so you raise your hand to smear it away and over your own tongue as you stop at the bottom of the short steps down from the porch, the light of your eyes reflecting on your skin when you turn them down to look at the girls who have been unceremoniously pinned to the dirt.

The Sisters have a foot each on Jane and Jade’s backs, crushing them down with enough force to break bones if they struggle, Jade’s rifle just out of reach of her grasping hands and Jane’s pistol lazily being twirled around Roxy’s outstretched finger. You expect they were angry, emotional, outnumbered dramatically through loss and not paying attention to their mistakes- it was likely a fight that would have been a massacre if the finale wasn’t planned to be something much worse.

“ _Jake,_ ” Jane starts, and it’s so brief you can’t tell if it’s in horror or desperation before Roxy neatly sweeps her other leg forward and slams Jane’s face back into the filth. As Jane cries out, now muffled and slurred, Roxy giggles, balancing on top of her and crouching down on her back to stroke the barrel of the pistol down her cheek.

“Now, now, Janey. What did we say? You gotta be _quiet_ if you wanna live a little longer, the _grownups_ are gonna be talking.”

“You should follow Jade’s example.” Rose pushes her foot down harder but Jade doesn’t make a sound, though when you look at her she’s staring straight back at you, all the hatred and disgust you’d expected louder in her eyes than they could possibly be in her voice. You don’t flinch away from it, relaxing into the fury and letting her despise you as she wishes. Once you’re done here, it will hardly matter.

With that thought in mind, you look away from her, find where Dirk is waiting beside you and take his hand when he offers it, threading your fingers together. His body is calm but his grip is tense, and waiting; you know he’s biding his time until you give him some kind of sign, but the moment you do, he’s just as ready to strike.

Good.

After all they did to you and for all they’d do yet, you hope their last thoughts are nothing but betrayal.

“Well isn’t this the sweetest little reunion?” Dave’s hand smacks your back hard enough you jerk away, but he doesn’t pause, walking past you and crouching down to examine the girls you called friends, your grip on Dirk’s hand tightening when Dave reaches to touch their faces. “The _mighty_ Hunters, all here together again after- Well.” He snickers, dropping his hands and standing. “Sounds like you all had one _hell_ of a break-up.”

He kicks Jade’s rifle away completely, then nods to the Sisters, who step off of their prey and let the two girls push themselves up. Jane looks at you, but pain envelops her features and she focuses on Dave instead. Jade doesn’t even give you the courtesy of another glance.

“So let’s play that one back, shall we? See what’s on the highlight reel.” Dave rubs his hands together in glee, letting out a laugh that would sound outright human if you didn’t know its cause. “Dirk spends _years_ getting into your trigger-happy golden boy’s head, and then all it takes is us kidnapping Janey- Oh, and _that_ was Dirk’s idea, let’s give him the credit- for English to come crawling in just like he was meant to, and give up his soul for the sake of friendship and heroics and all the other pathetic shit that makes humans so fucking predictable.”

“So really, we’ve gotta thank you, Jane.” Roxy hoots in a mockery of Jane’s laugh, and you watch another crack shatter Jane’s resolve as blame turns inwards and bites at her. “If it wasn’t for you believing my schtick about _wanting to turn over a new leaf, making up for all the awful things I’d done,_ and walking into that little trap?Well!” Roxy giggles. “There’d still be _four_ of you!”

You look away.

“Right, right,” Dave continues. “‘Cause you assholes didn’t pay attention, and Jake went _way_ too far overboard for you to get him back in your little holy boat. Gonna be real with you, kids, I didn’t think English had it in him to go all the way, but look at him now.”

The air changes as their attention shifts, and in the company of humans- still so odd to think that and not count yourself among them, but your time to deny it is already passed- you can taste their emotions, the same silky traces in the air that always led the Demons to your door when you sought to hide from them. You understand now how Dirk knew what surged beneath your skin when you looked at him, how they sensed when you had a plan when you weren’t as afraid as they expected you to be.

But Demons don’t betray themselves so easily, do they?

Your blood is running black, and in it shines your advantage.

Jade and Jane, however, are now laid bare, their guilt and sorrow and fury, their fear and denial and mourning. You force your gaze back them, and perhaps that was a mistake. It was easier to be distant before you could see the recognition of who you are, of what you’ve _become,_ and all those feelings bound tight into it doesn’t make it any easier to look them in the eye, though somehow you manage. You would rather them look at you now, let _this_ be their last memory of you, that forever have the last thought of you being you bloody and shaking and crying over what you’d done.

“Look at that, ladies, that’s a _quality_ corruption, ain’t it? I don’t suppose I have to tell _you_ all the things that means, right? We can’t turn someone like that unless they _want_ it. Or, heh…”

Dirk tenses as Dave turns his gaze to you, red eyes satisfied and superior in a way that has you flashing back to being pressed to the bed with him in your mind, him on your body, taking everything from you and breaking what fragile hold on humanity you had left. You pull closer to Dirk, unsure if you want to protect him or be protected, but whichever it is that draws you there it’s an unthinking motion that you only pay attention to when you taste the swell of disappointment in the air.

Your friends- you still want to call them that, even though it’s a lie, now- are both staring at you, and you know then that once again you’re doing just what Dave intended.

“...Unless they want _us,_ ” he finishes with a lazy smile, bloodlust biting at the corners of your thoughts and demanding you tear the expression from his skin.

He looks away before the red can fester into an aching wound that begs for action, but it still leaves you winded, a hate that boils beneath your skin and yet seems to want something from him that isn’t death. The things they feel- that _you_ feel, you always knew they were different from the emotions you’ve known before, but the red that burns on the surface of an oily black disaster in your heart still catches you off-guard in how alien it is, even in how right it feels for it to be there. Another sign of a fall from grace; another thing that will become mundane to you in time.

“You already knew that though, right?” Dave is asking them, kicking back on his heels and balancing unnaturally in place there. “‘Cause he had the choice between Dirk and y’all, and, hey remind me how that went again?”

No one answers. Dave snorts and lifts his hand, snapping it forward as his skin turns black.

“Oh, _that’s_ right,” he drawls as John bursts out into existence behind his hand, neck pulled forward like Dave is dragging on a leash. The ground beneath him is frosted over as the ghost struggles to fall apart and manages only to splinter and then come back together, kicking into empty air to try and break free. “I got a new toy, _that’s_ what happened.”

“ _John-!_ ” Jade starts before she can catch herself, the alarmed cry broken off by Rose’s foot whipping gracefully up to smash her across the face. She’s thrown sideways by the force of it, glasses flung from her face with a spray of blood from her already damaged nose, and as she shudders and drags herself back up Dirk tightens his grip on your hand in a question that your stillness answers.

_Wait._

“Look at that, it’s a real reunion now, Hunters. Shame two of you ain’t doing so hot, huh?” With a small motion, Dave draws John’s spirit closer, smiling as he reaches out and touches John’s translucent cheek. “So here’s how this goes. I’ve got better things to do than waste time on you, but I figure you deserve a fitting end after all the trouble you’ve both gone to to mess up all my shit.”

He dismisses John with a stern snap of his fingers, turning to you instead with authority in his voice.

“So, English. You kill them, you get to make it quick and painless. The girls kill them? They get to have some fun.” Dave pauses, smiles at you. “Besides, you’ve got experience murdering your friends, right? I hear it just comes _naturally._ ”

He shoots a look to Dirk, look enough for Dirk to give a shallow nod, and then he’s gone, a rush of shadows and his lingering scent in the air the last remnants of him, and fading fast. So he still trusts Dirk to keep you in line? Perhaps he thinks he understands Dirk’s motivations, what his dear brother wants out of this.

You are the one with the whispers in your mind however, and they tell you Dirk regrets what is to come even less than you expected.

Well, there’s no point in keeping anyone waiting. You let your hand unthread from his and stoop to gather Jade’s gun in your hand, knowing the rifle well enough to avoid the silver decorations as you settle into holding it ready. After a nod, Dirk moves, spreads a hand to Roxy in a silent demand, and for all she pouts she hands over the gun without a complaint, which is foolish at best and a death wish at worst.

They all really trust him, don’t they?

Your lips twitch, but thank your lucky stars it’s taken wrongly.

“This is _funny?_ ” Jane’s voice is high and trembling, but the defiance in her brave eyes has returned to burn as brightly as the soul that lies behind them. Roxy moves to strike and you growl a warning, the Demon pausing before scowling and stepping back, letting this be on your terms, likely something Dave demanded as part of some test that you are oh so happily going to fail. “John- _trusted you!_ He… He _loved you,_ Jake!”

Ah, there it is. The confirmation you didn’t particularly need, a memory of lips that bumped to yours and a final breath that was curved out in a shallow smile.

“He was going to kill me,” you answer simply, levelling the rifle at her face. “If you wouldn’t mind, I’d rather not see your eyes.”

“Coward,” she answers proudly, and this time you nod when Roxy moves, gritting your teeth as her pink-painted nails turn to talons and she slams Jane back down against the ground. You wait until you’re sure Jane is going to stay down, when Roxy has receded back to her expectant perch crouched down on the tips of her toes, admiring you with all the wonder of a child at Christmas who’s been given a puppy to play with that they’ll toss out onto the street by New Year. Dirk is beside you, not flinching at the burn as he presses his thumb to the silver safety and makes sure the weapon is ready to fire.

“Jade,” you murmur, glancing at Dirk and then nodding in her direction. He takes the invitation, raising the gun and aiming it straight between her eyes. “Does Rose need to _assist_ you, or-?”

Jade draws in a long breath as she watches you, and for one moment you wonder if she could possibly know, if she could understand. Whatever the answer might be, she lowers her head willingly, the two of them now low and weak against the ground, unarmed and unprotected in their rush to get their revenge, or perhaps to _save_ you, futile as the attempt would have been.

“An irony being killed with your own bullets.” You brace, making sure the shadows in your mind sing with the same purpose as the rest of you. “Were you coming here to kill us? Had we earned that honour? All that time saving your killshots, and now here we are, ready for them to finally be put to good use.”

“Less would’ve killed us,” Jade answers, voice level, and you taste just a hint of hope, knowing that the suspicion it will draw means you need to act quickly once you _know-_ “But this will be more _fitting._ ”

She’s given you what you need.

You smile.

“I’d say I’m sorry,” you hum, judging the curve and the shot and making sure there’s no sign of movement that might ruin it. “But I’m not.”

Jane braces against the ground, ready and waiting for the death that awaits her, as you swing the rifle neatly up and blow Roxy Lalonde’s smile from her face.

Rose starts to scream as Jane recoils from the black ichor that sprays her, but before the other Demon can move Dirk’s hand is up and the pistol has left a dark hole in her temple, her skull shattering as her breath hitches and a flower of her blood and flesh spreading out behind her in a moment that hangs in slow motion, the heavy thud of Roxy’s knees to the ground as her body topples forward so loud in your ears that they begin to ring with it. Rose stays standing for longer, swaying, before she collapses in a pile and Dirk steps forward, firing another round into her head when her body twitches, just to be safe.

There isn’t enough of Roxy’s head left for a second shot, you’d wager.

“Keep the pistol,” you say sharply when Dirk goes to drop it, though you do tear the rifle’s magazine from it and throw them both a safe distance apart, long enough Jade can’t shoot faster than you could run. “They wouldn’t have fired without a steady shot, that’s four bullets left for Dave.”

“He’ll need more than four if you want him dead.”

“Four is what we _have,_ Dirk, so four is what it’ll _take._ ”

Before you can react he’s in front of you, hand coming up to slap you hard across your face.

“ _That_ is for making me kill family,” he snarls, then seizes your shirt and drags you in, kissing you roughly and only surrendering to the touch when you tightly grasp at his hips to pull him closer, until he parts your lips and lingers close to you, searching your eyes with bright fire in his own. “ _That_ is for everything else.”

He’d be the death of you if you weren’t in hell already.

“You killed them,” Jane manages, and it draws you away from his eyes and the smile that had begun to form on your face, your hands dropping him to turn and find Jade’s glasses in the dirt as Jane stumbles up and stares at the jet blood pooling around what remains of Roxy’s face. “But you- You’re one of-”

“Of what? _Them?_ They can taint my blood but they can’t make me anything but what I want to become, weren’t you paying attention?” Ah, there are the buggers, cracked but hopefully good enough for Jade to use. You pluck them up and offer them to her, and despite the way her fingers tremble, she takes them, sliding them on and then taking your hand again when you help her to her feet.

“You know we can’t trust you,” Jade says slowly, and you nod.

Of course they can’t. It would be too much to demand it, awful of you to expect it, and _dammit,_ it would be stupid of them to try. You know what you are, and so do they. Keeping them alive is hardly anything but a parting gift, but you knew that from the start.

“Don’t come looking for me, and I won’t come back for you,” you offer instead. After a long moment, Jade simply turns away, reaching for Jane’s hand and pulling her into a comforting hold, green eyes dull as they look over Roxy and Rose in turn. Another facet of a life that’s lost to you, a moment you’re no longer welcome in. You turn away, gesturing to where the rifle landed. “Arm yourself in case Dave comes back, but- he’s mine.”

“What are you going to do to him?”

“Something terrible, I think, and then I’m going to tear John out of his grasp even if I have to rip his fingers off one at a time to do it.” The thought gives you pleasant chills, a smile that only Dirk sees and raises his eyebrows at, though the expression is hardly _displeased._ “But for now, I’m going to leave, and I dearly hope that I never see either of you again.”

“If you want to save John, if you still felt enough to save us- We could fix this!” Ah, Jane, you’ll miss her and the light she shines with. The hope in her voice is the same thing that left you begging to Dirk for his aid, the same thing that left your life playing second fiddle to your desire to save hers- in retrospect, it’s almost funny how easy you were to predict, and that somehow they didn’t realise _immediately_ what you’d done. “Jake, please, we could… we could do _something._ ”

You reach Dirk, and take his hand, and know that he’ll guide you through the steps of a dance you don’t know, that he’ll lead you into the shadows to chase a blood red trail.

“Jane,” you smile, and don’t look back. “I don’t want to be _fixed,_ and I don’t want to _save him._ ”

The darkness spreads before you, cold but ever so inviting.

“I want to make Dave Strider pay, and I want to take what’s _mine._ ”

**Author's Note:**

> As always you can reach me on [Tumblr](http://khemi.tumblr.com/), I track the **#khemi** tag and [prompts are usually open.](http://khemi.tumblr.com/ask)


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